My long-term plan for Colombia was nothing out of the ordinary (in no particular order):

• Improve my Spanish
• Get good preventative and general healthcare
• Connect with a community (both locals and other foreigners)
• Find a compatible colombiana, build a monogamous relationship and a stable home
• Open a sustainable business (or invest in an existing one)
• Gain long-term residency
• Contribute positively to the local economy

Well, after 3.5 years of living in Colombia and trying to achieve those things, I finally gave up and left on June 30th, 2026.

Hopes, Dreams, Successes and Failures

Let’s see how I did with my objectives, point by point.

Cost of Living ✅

Success. It was good while it lasted. Even now that the average costs have risen over 25%, Colombia is still quite budget-friendly, especially since I would have still been living below my means anyway.

Of course, the cost of living is directly related to almost everything else on this list, such as…

Medical and Dental Treatments ✅

Success. I got great dental care (including veneers), a minor preventative surgery, and a deep analysis of my kidneys. All relatively efficiently, and at a fraction of the price I’d have paid in the USA. Like I have said before, the private health insurance and healthcare system in Colombia is world-class, and is the main reason I’ll come back as a tourist.

Dating and Partnership ❌

Failure. Unfortunately, just like many other “older” single men seeking a legitimate partnership, I arrived in Colombia too late to find good women who might make good partners. I thought I had met one right away, and in my boundless optimism I spent a LOT of money “putting the cart before the horse”… but she turned out to be just a cheating gold digger, like the vast, overwhelming majority of Colombian women who have contact with foreigners.

Of course there are still some good women in Colombia, however people like me are basically “locked out” of that demographic, due to several reasons: the well-documented systemic classism and colorism, the generalized Colombian xenophobia, and of course our own personal immutable characteristics.

Yes, there were plenty of random dates and tons of sex, a welcome opposite of the situation in the USA… but that was not, and still is not, my primary goal.

Dating in Colombia was, and I heard it continues to be, a demoralizing shit-show. If I ever develop the mental energy to think about it again, I might write a separate, more detailed article about dating/partner-seeking in Colombia.

Finding a Community ⚠️

Partial success. For example, I foolishly brought my camera equipment – over $2,500 worth, in 2022 dollars – because I thought I’d link up with local content creators and filmmakers, or do freelance videography and get clients by sheer weight of expertise and enthusiasm. Oh, what a naive fucking idiot I was 😆

Anyway, even though I didn’t connect meaningfully with a community of like-minded people, I did enjoy some fun and interesting experiences with a few individuals (both locals and fellow foreigners), and I made TWO legitimate friends. Funny enough, even though these two friends happen to be the same skin color as me, we connected based on shared interests and goals, not skin color. Once I left that shit hole town called Barranquilla and moved to Cali, I was involved in some fun Board Game Nights, along with a few other random activities.

It’s just too bad that by then, I had already wasted 2 whole years in a luxury prison, and I only had 4-6 months in Cali before I had to exit the country.

Opening A Business/Project ⚠️

Partial success. My difficulties finding residential housing in Colombia inspired me to create a website and service called Ayudaka Expat Support Network. It is a 100% FREE directory that connects travelers/immigrants with local helpers who can provide said foreigners with personalized services or niche products in the large informal economy (fees are negotiated directly between the foreigners and the local helper).

However, Colombian society is notoriously low-trust, requiring the development and maintenance of interpersonal relationships in order to achieve even some basic tasks. Many foreigners from high-trust society struggle with this lack of established structure and processes. This turned out to be a significant barrier to properly executing the Ayudaka model, especially considering the systemic colorism and generalized xenophobia against foreigners.

Despite all of that, I consider Colombia a good “testing ground” for such ideas. I learned a lot from the project’s pilot phase, and now I can pivot this portable project and apply it differently in a different country.

Long-Term Residency ❌

Failure. In my 3.5 years in Colombia, I got two separate Digital Nomad visas (classified as “Visitor”) but was unable to secure a Student visa (also under the Visitor class), even after two tries through Tingo Language School. At that point, and factoring in the other challenges and the general high rates of visa application denials, I decided that it just wasn’t worth it anymore.

Why I Left

Rising Cost of Living

Obviously, the gentrification is spreading out from Medellin and Cartagena (but mostly Medellin). Like I mentioned at the top of this article, it hadn’t affected me much. However, some of my costs in Cali had already started rising quickly and showing no signs of slowing down.

Safety Concerns

Having to keep my head on a swivel, having my guard up at all times, being hyper-aware while outside, knowing that it is a victim-blaming society (so if I were defrauded, attacked, or hurt, I’d literally have no recourse)… it got mentally and emotionally draining. My anxiety is already higher-than-average… if I continued, my mental health would likely never be under control.

That being said, throughout my time in Colombia, I was never pickpocketed, robbed, drugged, or kidnapped! 😀👍🏾

Sure, I spent a lot of that time stressed about something or the other, and basically “hiding” in my apartments… but hey, that’s the price of safety in Colombia!

Worsening Personal Mental Health

The relatively high levels of needless and inefficient bureaucracy in many countries are not news to me nor to anyone paying attention. However, everyone has their own tolerance levels. For me, it started feeling like “death by a thousand cuts”. This, combined with the necessary constant vigilance against fraud, the transactional and shallow nature of interactions, and the pervasive dishonesty… the additional cognitive load, maintained for such a long stretch of time, low-key made me into a worse version of myself 😔

That is, Colombia took some of my negative defensive attributes – paranoia, cynicism, unhealthy/blanket distrust and fear of almost everyone around me – and cranked them up to 11.

While I never regressed to the pandemic-era mental state when I was literally ready to unalive myself, it is evident that trying my best to integrate into Colombia was damaging to my mental health.

Lack of a Visa

Like I mentioned earlier in this article, I wasn’t willing to dump more time and money into pursuing another long-stay visa, which would most likely be denied anyway. It made no sense to keep contributing to the economy of a country that doesn’t want me as an immigrant or even long-term resident. I decided to just “take the L” and move on.

Summary and Lessons Learned

I learned MANY lessons during this first 3.5 years of my international slow-traveling journey. Here are some of them.

When we leave our comfort zone, we must be OK with some level of uncertainty. We must enjoy our successes, accept failures, learn from them, and if necessary, pivot and plan better moving forward. Speaking of moving forward, you’re probably wondering…

That’s it for me. I’ll always be grateful for my time in Colombia, because no experience – good or bad – is truly wasted. As always, safe travels, folks!